Firstly, jimsonburg please stop "spamming" on every post - it's truly annoying. As far as vinegar, I know I've posted these comments before but I'll reiterate ... IMO vinegar is not a great "all purpose" cleaner. I do use it for some things (ie. laundry rinse for some items, clean the fish bowl, clean some mineral deposits, etc Â). Low pH cleaners (acidic, like vinegar) can dissolve hard water and mineral deposits, but canÂt tackle dirt and grime. Many people have heard "use vinegar" so they do but they donÂt really understand the chemistry behind cleaning. Cleaning/laundry are really a lesson in chemistry. What will remove certain dirt/stains and suspend them in water so they can be removed completely. ItÂs really quite fascinating (to me anyway):) High pH cleaners (more alkaline, like harsher soaps) are good at dissolving dirt and grime. Warning: these will also eventually dull the finish of some floors (ie. hardwood). I like to use a neutral PH cleaner for all my floors. ThatÂs why I choose the Shaklee Basic H2. I have tried MANY cleaners for my tile floors (even vinegar at one time). They all left streaks. Basic H2 dries my floor with no streaks. I donÂt rinse or dry it. I do have/use the Shaklee Basic H2 in many ways. I have the 3 spray bottles for the different concentrate levels (to be honest I just love the graphics on them but you could use any spray bottle). I have one for glass/mirrors, one for all-purpose and one for degreasing. I also use it diluted in a pail for washing floors (best thing IÂve ever used  honestly). One bottle can last me 6 months (itÂs so concentrated). I sometimes add essential oils to my mixtures (ie. tea tree for floors and bathrooms as it has disinfecting properties, sometimes eucalyptus and/or lavender too). My cleaners smell amazing and have no nasty chemicals to breath in. Graywings makes some valid points regarding multi level marketing. Although I think that Shaklee is a great company  when you read about all their efforts to help improve the environment  itÂs better than a company like Clorox. I joined Shaklee purely to buy my own products for myself (without having to go to someone else). I have several friends who also love the products and I order for them. ThatÂs as far as my involvement goes but I do really like the products that I use. Here is a link that might be useful: Basic H2 spray bottles

Luckygal, branding has been around for a very long time. For example: Vernon and Irene Castle slapped their names on everything and anything you can imagine and stuff that you can't from candy to cigars, shoes, records etc. This was back in 1912. They were the pair that put ballroom dancing on the map and made it extremely popular. Irene set many fashions trends in her day including the incredibly ugly but very popular stove top hat and was one of the first to bob her hair setting off a new look for hair in the 1920's flapper. They owned nightclubs and dance studios. The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers dancing that we all recall fondly in their old movies was based on Vernon and Irene's innovations in dance. My kids (aged 30 and 26) are not swayed by such nonsense and neither are their friends. I think there has always been (and always will be) people who feel safer purchasing something endorsed by a "name" and others who look for quality, value and style. Sky Here is a link that might be useful: wiki Vernon and Irene Castle

Of course, if you don't like it, it has to be a right wing conspiracy. Lol From the link I left above ~ American Council on Science and Health: "Additionally, the evidence regarding the effect of DDT on eggshell thinning among wild birds is contradictory at best. The environmentalist literature claims that the birds threatened directly by the insecticide were laying eggs with thin shells. These shells, say the environmentalists, would eventually become so fragile that the eggs would break, causing a decline in bird populations, particularly among raptors (birds of prey). In 1968 two researchers, Drs. Joseph J. Hickey and Daniel W. Anderson, reported that high concentrations of DDT were found in the eggs of wild raptor populations. The two concluded that increased eggshell fragility in peregrine falcons, bald eagles, and ospreys was due to DDT exposure.9 Dr. Joel Bitman and associates at the U.S. Department of Agriculture likewise determined that Japanese quail fed DDT produced eggs with thinner shells and lower calcium content.10 In actuality, however, declines in bird populations either had occurred before DDT was present or had occurred years after DDT’s use. A comparison of the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Counts between 1941 (pre-DDT) and 1960 (after DDT’s use had waned) reveals that at least 26 different kinds of birds became more numerous during those decades, the period of greatest DDT usage. The Audubon counts document an overall increase in birds seen per observer from 1941 to 1960, and statistical analyses of the Audubon data confirm the perceived increases. For example, only 197 bald eagles were documented in 194111; the number had increased to 891 in 1960.12 At Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania, teams of ornithologists made daily counts of migrating raptors for over 40 years. The counts��"published annually by the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association��"reveal great increases in most kinds of hawks during the DDT years. The osprey counts increased as follows: in 1946, 191; in 1956, 288; in 1967, 457; and in 1972, 630.13 In 1942 Dr. Joseph Hickey��"who in 1968 would blame DDT for bird population decline��"reported that 70 per-cent of the eastern osprey population had been killed by pole traps around fish hatcheries.14 That same year, before DDT came into use, Hickey noted a decline in the population of peregrine falcons.15 Other observers also documented that the great peregrine decline in the eastern United States occurred long before any DDT was present in the environment.16,17 In Canada peregrines were observed to be “reproducing normally” in the 1960s even though their tissues contained 30 times more DDT than did the tissues of the midwestern peregrines allegedly being extirpated by the chemical.18 And in Great Britain, in 1969, a three-year government study noted that the decline of peregrine falcons in Britain had ended in 1966 even though DDT levels were as abundant as ever. The British study concluded that “There is no close correlation between the decline in population of predatory birds, particularly the peregrine falcon and the sparrow hawk, and the use of DDT.”19 In addition, later research refuted the original studies that had pointed to DDT as a cause for eggshell thinning. After reassessing their findings using more modern methodology, Drs. Hickey and Anderson admitted that the egg extracts they had studied contained little or no DDT and said they were now pursuing PCBs, chemicals used as capacitor insulators, as the culprit.20 When carefully reviewed, Dr. Bitman’s study revealed that the quail in the study were fed a diet with a calcium content of only 0.56 percent (a normal quail diet consists of 2.7 percent calcium). Calcium deficiency is a known cause of thin eggshells.21��"23 After much criticism, Bitman repeated the test, this time with sufficient calcium levels. The birds produced eggs without thinned shells.24 After many years of carefully controlled feeding experiments, Dr. M. L. Scott and associates of the Department of Poultry Science at Cornell University “found no tremors, no mortality, no thinning of eggshells and no interference with reproduction caused by levels of DDT which were as high as those reported to be present in most of the wild birds where ‘catastrophic’ decreases in shell quality and reproduction have been claimed.”23 In fact, thinning eggshells can have many causes, including season of the year, nutrition (in particular insufficient calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D, and manganese), temperature rise, type of soil, and breeding conditions (e.g., sunlight and crowding)." Al

one year, my grandfather stayed the entire 3 month of Summer at my house at Whittier, California. I had recently two young adult avocado trees in my back yard. when my Grandfather arrived he visited the alvocado trees. Asked me to get him two rusty 5 inch nails and a hammer. He nailed the rusty nails into the trunks of each trees. I stood by scratching my head wondering where was all this going? The next Summer my Grandfather returned again. Surprisingly the trees started producing enormance amount of buds. within another the third Summer the trees were producing many many alvocados. As I recalled it these two trees lived for something like 20 years producing large quantities of Hass Alvocadoes. My Grandfather returned every year to care for those trees. And he finally explained the basic reasoning behind nailing a rusty nail to the trunks of a fruit bearing tree. Stimulation was the primary reasoning. Secondary, was supporting over hanging branches weighed down from all them large sized alvocados. Thirdly providing a surplus of irrigation water by digging a circular deep trench around both trees. My Grandfather, he was a genius. like many many other grandfathers whwho lived from those eras.